In 1985, the Internet’s first truly dedicated virtual community came to be. This was known as the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, or “The WELL”. The WELL was split up into various subject areas, or “conferences,” discussing a wide variety of subjects. These conferences, in turn, were split up into conversational threads. It was the early equivalent to most latter-day forums and message boards. However, because the service required payment, and due to the fact that the users wanted to be able to know each other in the real world, anonymity was, and is still, not allowed on the WELL.
There were other virtual communities and newsgroups which appeared on the Internet. However, all of these communities had no form of anonymous communication, either because giving one’s real name was a requirement, or simply because using your anthroponym was the unwritten, de facto rule at the time.
In fact, it was not until 1988 when the first instances of anonymous communities were introduced. They usually dealt with topics which may have been controversial, personal, or possibly offensive. To see an example of what this means, one needs to look no further than one of the first of these services, Dave Mack’s alt.sex.bondage. Websites dealing with sexual topics – in particular alternative sexuality – were considered highly volatile, and in order to post freely without fear of being ostracized, the users would post under various pseudonyms. (
Source)
As time went on, anonymous posting on newsgroups and other online communities became more and more frequently. However, some people still did not feel like they had enough privacy, and wanted to increase their level of anonymity with specially-made servers, such as the Chypherpunk Group’s remailer service, which would take messages with embedded instructions on the message’s destination and forward them without revealing who the sender was. This service was introduced in 1992.
Still more services appeared in later years, giving users more options for a greater sense of privacy. The most popular of these tools was the Anonymizer, which, in a nutshell, hid a user’s IP address from the web sites being accessed, showing instead the Anonymizer’s IP address. Others included Crowds, which would hide the users by sending HTTP requests through a group of other users running the Crowds software; Onion Routing, which would hide IP Addresses through layers of encrypting; and many more. (
Source 1,
Source 2)
However, these services have since gone out of fashion, particularly since 2000. There is no clear reason as to why this is the case. Some claim that it is because the ease of connecting to the Internet has increased. This allows more tech-novices to use the web. These users, however, don’t have the desire or know-how to use the anonymity tools. Other’s say it is because the structure of the Internet in general has changed, and since it is no longer simply a series of newsgroups, the value (or perhaps the functionality) of such programs has diminished. Still others say that modern operating systems and browsers and tools which give the same essential protection to users. However, there is no hard explanation for this phenomenon; the tools, while still used by the more hardened computer veterans, simply fell off the public radar.
Currently, the Internet is still considered a relative haven for anonymity, as most online sites and communities allow you to use pseudonyms without any serious registration. Additionally, the rise of online games, in particular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, such as
World of Warcraft and
Guild Wars, has provided a new outlet for people to communicate with each other through not only a variety of pseudonyms, but a variety of personalities as well. However, it is still possible to track someone through IP Addresses, so it is, overall, a mixed bag for the average user.
